QC Teaching Discussion Forum

Motivating Students and Teachers

ngonzales — Thur, 19 Nov 2009 19:46:33 GMT

Hey everyone, I was reading one of the books that Marilynn gave us during our meeting last week. It was the one that was titled Motivating Students and Teachers in an Era of Standards. One of the items which I read jumped out at me. It was the the goal setting-achieving-celebrating cycle. (pg. 30) I am a football coach here in Powers, at this time we are doing our annual meeting with players individually and setting weight, speed goals for them as well as team goals so them and the team can be better next year. This section of the book discusses the exact same technique being used in the classroom. I had never thought of this. My players can't wait to hear the goals we have for them, they will wait in line for forty-five minutes after school so they can meet with us. I then post these goals in my room and they are looking at them every week seeing how they are doing. The excitement and motivation (and even competition with others) has increased the way my team competed this year compared to last. Just imagine having students that excited.
My question is if anyone has tried this, and what kind of goals would you give kids at the start of the year for say a science class. How would you document this, keep track of it? In football we have a binder we keep for the kids and each year of goals and update it every nine weeks. I don't know, it just sounded so easy to me to do the same thing for academics like we do for athletics.
Thanks for your time,
Nick

Forum: High School Discussion

introductions

ngonzales — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:48:39 GMT

I posted this on the page that said Nick's page, but then realized it was from May. So I thought I would create a new topic also.

Hello, my name is Nick Gonzales. I am a teacher at Powers High School. I took this class hoping to get some help with the subject because I did not start out as a science teacher but somehow over the past three years I ended up teaching freshman Physical Science. It has been very difficult for me since I am sometimes still learning the information the morning before I teach it.

The Unit we are on right now and that I am going to start out with discussing on this forum is titled "Chemistry in Action."  This unit includes 4 chapters, 1. Chemical Reactions, 2. Acids, Bases, and Solutions 3. Carbon Chemistry 4. Exploring materials.

At the start of each Unit, I assign the students first a Pre-Assessment over the whole unit. This has general questions over the unit we will be studying next. I will take this assessment to guide me on the strengths and challenges that my student have prior to the unit. For this unit, I was hoping at least they remembered such concepts as names of elements, differences between physical and chemical reactions, and chemical compounds, which they will need to know for this new unit. I found that out of my 8 students in class, for these concepts, 7 knew all of the questions about these past items. When it came to asking questions about the new information such as items as endothermic/exothermic reactions, balancing equations, differences between solvents and solutes, all of my students had very little prior knowledge.  Because of this information gained, I now am able to not have to review as much on past chapters, but am able to dive into the new topics.

After the Pre-Assessment, I hand out another assignment over the Unit. This is what I call a pre-read. I use this to introduce general terms and concepts to the students about this new unit.  The students at the first of the year are taught how to skim through the Unit to answer these questions. I believe knowing how to skim through information to find answers is also a great strengths to have. I know that this pre-read is working because constantly when we are actually working on a section in a chapter, students will say to me that we have already done this, and I will remind them we did it on the pre-read.

In my next post, I will discuss the first chapter completed for this unit. If anyone would like an example of my pre-assessment or pre-read so they can help me make it a more meaningful learning tool, please let me know.

Thanks again,
Nick

Forum: High School Discussion

Completed Unit with Reflection

marykadams — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:17:18 GMT

Attached is my unit from this summer on solving linear equations with a reflection about the results. This should complete my 4 units that I began in the summer.

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Nick's Page

jefrancis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:54:03 GMT

Hi Nick,

Here is a place for you to get started by sharing a little about yourself and what you are teaching for the rest of the term. I hope you will also share any areas of interest or questions that you might have for this discussion.

I look forward to sharing ideas with you.

Judy

Forum: High School Discussion

Lindsay's page

jefrancis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:49:06 GMT

Hi Lindsay,

Here is a place for us to get started with learning a little about you and what you will be teaching for the rest of this term. I hope you will include any areas of interest or questions that could be topics for our discussion.

I look forward to sharing ideas with you.

Judy

Forum: High School Discussion

Atzi's page

jefrancis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:37:56 GMT

Hi Atzi,

This is here to get you started. Why don't you post a little about what you are doing in science at the moment. It would be interesting and useful to also post questions you may have about some of the differentiation strategies to use for the science you are teaching.

Looking forward to sharing ideas with you.

Judy

Forum: High School Discussion

introduction

VickiF — Thur, 12 Nov 2009 17:40:20 GMT

I'm Vicki Freytag and I teach 7th and 8th grade language arts at North Douglas Middle School. I have been here for 11 years. I was a part of the original pilot for the quality teaching model a few summers ago. I have wanted to participate several times since then but never seem to have the time.

I am in the middle of a fairly long unit that actually has two parts to it. I work closely with the social studies teacher to try to use that content to fuel our reading, writing and speaking goals.

They are studying colonization and the Revolutionary War now. We just finished reading Cast Two Shadows which is about the Revolutionary War in the South. We work on Literary Elements specifically characterization because the protagonist of the story changes so much. I have pick this novel because its setting is in South Carolina and it was written for students to understand the connection between the Revolutionary War and the inevitable Civil War. Since the 8th grade social studies curriculum is colonization through the Civil War, it allows me to tie the whole year together in literature as they read Across Five Aprils in the spring. Both books are about how war affects families potentially splitting them apart.

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Greetings, I'm working with SRS Systems

arichar2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:12:47 GMT

Hello everyone,

I've decided to focus on SRS systems for my QC Teaching Project. I have no experience with these systems, but want to use it in two areas, as a warm-up for my classes for a check on individuals pre-skills and at the end of the lesson as an evaluation device.

I want to use them for all my classes: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus. I was going to start gradually just using them for Warm-ups which I have for all my classes except Pre-Calculus. For the end of the lesson, I was going to use problems both from their homework in that lesson and also from quizzes and/or tests that I have written in previous years.

If you have any experience or know of websites that I can import question banks for PowerPoint Presentations, please let me know!

Glad to be a part of this group and hope everyone has a great year.

Forum: High School Discussion

Welcome to Fall Quarter QC Teach !

wylda — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:12:25 GMT

It's exciting to be starting in again with QC Teach. I'm looking forward to hearing about and participating in the discussions about how to make education better!

When each of you post, we have learned through experience it works best when, on your initial post, you click on NEW TOPIC. For the message subject, put your name. In subsequent posts, go back to your name and add new information. When other participants read you post, they will make comments at that place as well, so the "conversation" about your posts will be easy to follow.

When you read other participants' posts, make your comments on their place.

If you have a question, start another NEW TOPIC and phrase the message subject so as to identify it as a question.

I hope all that makes sense to everyone. If not, or if you have any other questions, post them here, or call me 541-937-3114 or e-mail me at cafferat@msn.com.

Again, welcome to Fall QC Teach!

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Fall 09 QCTeach Options

olsonm — Thur, 05 Nov 2009 20:29:18 GMT

Participants are encouraged to work from these options to plan a study of teaching and learning that will best benefit students' learning gains and teachers' insights about their students.

Forum: General Announcements

Jennifer's Project!

wylda — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:46:34 GMT

Hi Group!

I'm attaching the work Jennifer Scurlock (Hi, Jennifer!) has been doing this summer for her unit on what it means to be an American. It is really exciting stuff, and well worth looking at and perhaps incorporating into your classrooms. Jennifer says she is glad to share, and you can contact her either here or by e-mail for more details.

wylda

Forum: High School Discussion

Me again...!

Molly — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:54:22 GMT

So, I'm finishing up... I have attached my new unit plan. As far as part F "develop & include plans for clear pre- post-measures of student response" that will be explored through student attitudes towards probability before, during, and after unit in students' Learning Logs.

Additionally, how students react to group presentations (will they want to "do more"?) will be another indicator of overall student response.

I hope to use this in the future, and I would absolutely love for anyone else to give it a try, also. I have handouts & lessons for many of the topics & objectives outlined. Don't hesitate to email me if you're interested - I would love the feedback!

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Part D (summary)

Molly — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:37:52 GMT

Through research I have discovered a variety of valuable ideas and strategies that both inform as well as reframe my initial questions. For instance, while I was originally focused upon finding manipulatives as my primary goal in teaching this unit, I am now leaning more toward the humanities/socio-cultural relevance that is, for me, a more natural mode from which to operate as an educator.

In a nutshell, this is my new plan: I will use manipulatives early on in my unit, in order to introduce the topic, and to give students multi-sensory opportunities from which to understand the basics of probability.

Throughout this unit, I plan to use learning logs, both to help students reestablish & reevaluate their understandings, as well as to inform my teaching - what needs more time, what is well-established, as well as some valuable formative assessments.

Finally, this unit will culminate with small-group work, similar to literature circles used in other subjects. Instead of choosing a book, however, students will be given culturally relevant options to further investigate. Their preferences (as well as their ability levels, personality characteristics, etc.) will determine these small groups. The research leads me to believe that students choice & innate interests in different investigative/exploratory topics will build motivation, and correspondingly, motivation.

I have high hopes for this unit. Now the real challenge is actually designing it. Please, any and all comments are appreciated, and again, I apologize for the sudden inundation of posts!

Molly

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Probability: Parts A-C & Original Unit

Molly — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:58:57 GMT

I'm still (kind of) synthesizing my findings & strategies (Part D), but I wanted to get some of my stuff posted. So, as follows, my original unit plan (which is straight out of the book), and Parts A-C of Phase III.

Molly

Forum: Middle School Discussion

Manipulatives

Molly — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:09:07 GMT

I found this super duper chart in the NCTM publication"Empowering the Beginning Teacher of Mathematics in Middle School" (2004) in an article titled "Maximizing Manipulatives" by Thomasenia Lott Adams (page 24). I have included it as an attachment because it covers a lot of different subject areas. For more specifics, you'd still need to look that up, but this just seemed really useful to me, so I'm sharing it with you all. I hope I don't get sued for copyright infringement...

Actually, is there a risk of that? If anyone knows definitively, please let me know and I'll take it down

Forum: Middle School Discussion